Game

Norway played its standard Norwegian style of play, stay back and defend until a counter attacking opportunity presents itself, or a long ball coupled with a strong physical presence up front broke down the defense. Boring but through the years has been successful except when they are methodically taken apart with speed, skill and game plan as they were in the 1999 World Cup USA by China.

In this match it seemed to work when Pedersen scored early in the second half but it was neutralized just over ten minutes later when the skill and speed of the U.S. team resulted in an equalizing goal. U.S. Head Coach Chris Petrucelli started six different players against Norway.

Post game quotes

U.S. Head Coach Chris Petrucelli

It was typical Norway-USA game. It was a physical battle and they really sat in and tried to counter. We were trying to break them down all game, but it was a great learning experience for us to be in that kind of environment against that kind of team. Most importantly, we rested a number of players and we should be fresh going into the game on Sunday.

Sweden is a good a team. They have three our four real personality players that like to go forward and they have shown throughout the week that they are hard to break down.

Kelly McDonald

It's been a really good experience to play in a big tournament like this. I've heard about the Nordic Cup all my life coming up through the national team programs with the U-16s, U-18s and U-21s and it was my goal to make this team. Everyone is real excited to be playing in the final.

Ally Marquand

We put ourselves in a great situation by doing well in the first two games and not having to win this one. For the past couple of months we had some new players, and it was difficult to gel, but we've come together as a team and showed that against Denmark and Iceland. I am sure Sweden is a stronger team than we played two years ago, but if we play like we did in the first two games, we have the skill and the talent to win this tournament.